5 Reputation Tracking Tools By Google

Online reputation management is the latest buzz word in SEO world. I see reputation management firms popping up on daily bases. With changing economy, businesses are more concerned about their reputation then they were 1 – 2 year before.

If you don’t have a problem with your online reputation but you’re concerned about your brand name. Then first step for you is to track your reputation.
Below I’ve mentioned 5 reputation tracking tools by Google. These tools can help you keep an eye at your online reputation.

1. Google News

One of the best ways to track mainstream media mentions of your company is to use Google News. Enter your company name, sort the results by date published and then subscribe to the RSS feed. You’ll get instant RSS updates of any news items that mention your business. Example for “nokia“.

Here’s how it works. Navigate to the Google News page, and click on the news alerts link.
Next, you define a topic, by setting any number of keywords and phrases that retrieved items need to have, the type of news you want, how often you want it, and your email. That’s it -seriously. You’ll have to confirm your email.

Google will now send you news alerts that you have chosen to your email inbox, at the rate you want, from once a day, once a week, or as the news happens. Google has access to literally thousands of news sources, and I’ve found that when I’m needing more of a variety of sources on one subject, they manage to deliver.

2. Blog Search

If a blog happens to “ping” the blogosphere, the chances are that it will get on Google Blog Search. Even if the blog isn’t in Google news, or doesn’t make the main Google index, Google Blog Search might still find that story that mentions your CEO or your recent product launch. Get alerts to matching stories via email or RSS.

Early Wednesday, Google updated its blog search tool to track news stories as they pop up on various blogs. Like Google News, the company is taking a product that began as something for search and making it a destination of its own.

What’s different in blog search compared with news is that the front page shows how many outlets wrote about a story and how old in a very different manner. In blog search’s case the number of sources is given a far higher prominence, and instead of tracking how fresh a story is, Google has chosen to display how long it’s had the limelight.

3. Patent Search

Keeping track of patent filings was notoriously difficult before Google Patent Search came along. Now you can keep any eye on patents filed that relate to your industry. Better yet, keep track of patents that might violate your company held patents. Google Patent Search have a database of 7 million US patents.

4. Trends

What search queries are popular at Google right now? Thanks to Google Trends you can get an idea of which keywords are most searched for. You can narrow your research to specific countries or cities–letting you know if a product has global or local appeal.

5. Email updates

If you’re not quite ready for all of that RSS reader nonsense, you can still keep track of the latest buzz via email. Google Alerts let you track web, blogs, news and groups for any phrase you want. Select daily, weekly or “as it happens” updates and you’ll get an email whenever your company name is mentioned.